Salt in the Prehistoric Balkansselected references, links, comments and updates by Lolita Nikolova

Tasic, N. 2000 Salt Use in the Early and Middle Neolithic of the Balkan Peninsula. In: Nikolova L. (ed.) Technology, Style and Society. BAR International Series, pp. 35-40..pdf file (for references which are at the end of the book e-mail to lnikolova@iianthropology.org

The site has been described as a salt produce center just on the base of very preliminary information. It is a settlement close to salt springs. Ceramic vessels with traces of salt were found in the later Neolithic layer. They had been interpreted as evidence of salt production. In the media the prehistoric site was announced as the earliest in Europe center for salt production and salt long-distance export but neither the excavations nor additional information proves such interpretation. Such information does not exist in the official report of the team published by the National Archaeological Institute and Museum.

Museum of History - ProvadiaTel.: 0518/4 20 33

The Earliest Salt Production Center in Europe by Vassil Nikolov (2006)text from http://www.c-a-c.hit.bg/archaelogical%20season2006.htmlA team of the Institute of Archaeology and Museum – BAS made extremely interesting discoveries at an archaeological site located near Provadia and called Solnitsata, whose shape and dimensions were until quite recently not very well defined.The archaeological excavations, which ended recently, have confirmed the hypothesis and produced sensational evidence for the earliest salt extraction in Europe. It happened ca. 5400 BC, in the late Neolithic, when a group of people from Thrace crossed the Stara Planina Mountains and settled down at the salt springs near the present-day town of Provadia. The settlers started to boil the water running out of the salt mirror, containing 160-190 g of salt per liter. Evidence for this production technique are the thousands sherds of thin walled though roughly smoothed ceramic bowls, 40-45 cm in diameter, which are typical for this site only. They were use for boiling and evaporating of water at special facilities. The final product was a lump with standard dimensions, which was ready for exchange or trade. The study of Prof. Ivan Havezov (Institute of General and Inorganic chemistry – BAS) on a number of these fragments revealed the presence of a considerable amount of salt on their surfaces as well as on the inside. The importance of the discovery at Provadia is related to the necessary daily intake of salt for the normal functioning of the human body: 12-18 g. The animals, especially the domestic ones, have the same needs. Until quite recently there was no data on the salt production in the Balkans and this problem was omitted by the studies. However, the simple calculations reveal that the early farmers (6th millennium BC) of Thrace only, the area where the settlers of Provadia have come from, needed at least 500 tons of salt per year (including the needs of the domestic animals). The salt producing “colony” apparently traded the salt and supplied the population of Thrace with salt and probably got in return food and other necessary products. The discovery of the salt production center in northeast Bulgaria opens possibilities for research on this vital aspect of the economy of the earliest European civilization.Another hypothesis was confirmed during this season, namely that the salt production continued at the same place in the Chalcolithic (5th millennium BC) as well, in the time of the spectacular Varna Chalcolithic cemetery including. This cemetery is situated only 20 km east of the salt production center. The reason for the accumulation of an extreme wealth consisting of prestige objects made of gold, copper, flint, horn/bone, sea shells, etc. was not properly explained for more than 30 years but now we could argue with a great degree of probability that it was directly related to the continuing production of considerable amounts of salt near Provadia and the salt trade. It is exactly the time when the salt production center - with regular round shape, 105 m in diameter - was surrounded by a ditch and a stone rampart behind it as well as with a palisade, which was solidly constructed of vertical wooden posts, plastered with a thick layer of clay. Apparently the salt producers had good reasons to build up this labor-consuming defensive system, which was aimed to protect their wealth.The migrations of nomadic tribes coming from the North and the demographic changes in the eastern Balkans at the end of the 5th millennium BC marked the end of the Chalcolithic civilization in the region.A tumulus, 12 m high and 80 m in diameter, was made after a long break, in the 4th century BC. It was made with soil taken from the 8 m high tell accumulated during the functioning of the salt production center. It was a very impressive Thracian cult center, whose total height exceeded 20 m. The ‘tumulus’ is situated to the north on the top of the tell, so that the rest of the terrain forms a terrace, up to 22 m wide to the south and paved with small stones. Apparently it was the area aimed for the participants in the rituals. In this direction the ‘tumulus’ faces a stone structure, whose function is still unknown. The Thracian cult center functioned ca. one millennium.The continuing archaeological excavations will soon define Provadia-Solnitsata as one of the most interesting archaeological sites in Bulgaria.Prof. Dr. Vassil Nikolov, Institute of Archaeology and Museum – BAS

Comments by Lolita Nikolova, PhD1. As the article by Nenad Tasic shows there are no reason not to believe that salt had been produced in the Balkans since Early Neolithic and the existed resources were one of possibly the stimuli for the Neolithization of the Balkans.2. The sites of Provadia dates from later Neolithic (later sixth millennium cal BCE) and for this reason cannot be a candidate for the earliest center for salt production in the Balkans3. The found thousands sherds cannot be accepted as undisputable proof for the proposed boiling water technology of salt production. As the information about the Museum of Salt shows below, typical for this region was using the sun energy.4. The excavations from 2007 shows, the latest layer belongs to later Hamangia culture (abt the mid of the fifth millennium cal BCE). Then, there is no Gumelnitsa-Kodzhadermen-Varna layer from later fifth millennium cal BCE that contradicts the statement above that "The reason for the accumulation of an extreme wealth consisting of prestige objects made of gold, copper, flint, horn/bone, sea shells, etc. was not properly explained for more than 30 years but now we could argue with a great degree of probability that it was directly related to the continuing production of considerable amounts of salt near Provadia and the salt trade".5. There is no published enough pottery to clarify the cultural belonging of the postulated 5 levels of the tell.

Provadia-Solnitsata.Prehistoric tell over which was erected a Thracian mound.5 levels were documented from later 6th - earlier fifth millennium cal BCE.No certain data about intensive long-distant exchange of salt.